


The Fortress of Darkness and Light

by JadeEnder



Series: Merged AU [21]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), The End Is Nigh, but he cant, sky just wants to be happy with zelda, the dungeon begins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-05-31 14:46:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19428142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeEnder/pseuds/JadeEnder
Summary: The next morning the heroes awoke and prepared for the final battle, Legend assured them they could reach Veran’s fortress before the day was over and they revealed in the idea that in only a matter of hours they would be free. Free from the influence of the darks and finally back to their own selves.





	1. Chapter 1

The next morning the heroes awoke and prepared for the final battle, Legend assured them they could reach Veran’s fortress before the day was over and they revealed in the idea that in only a matter of hours they would be free. Free from the influence of the darks and finally back to their own selves. 

With all their weapons and armor at the ready, magical tools on hand the ten of them set out from Legend’s house. The purple rabbit man, Ravio, had insisted on following them, claiming to worry about Legend’s safety. 

Sighing Sky walked alongside his friends, he should have felt happy to almost be rid of Stygian, but he didn’t. If he was honest he hadn’t felt much at all recently. Stygian kept quiet most of the time which was almost worse than talking constantly. 

The day passed in a haze, everyone was on edge legend and Ravio led the group reassuring every once and awhile they were getting close. Despite being “good friends” Sky never really saw Ravio and Legend act like it. Both of them kept their attention on other things and rarely spoke to each other while they were traveling. 

Sky just wanted it all to be done, he wanted to rest. It had been so long since he’d had a refreshing deep sleep, since he dreamed instead of having cryptid nightmares that only filled him anxiety and stress.

Just after their noon time lunch break Legend turned to address them, his skin had become more ashen recently and the green highlights in his hair more pronounced. 

“In just about ten minutes of walking Veran’s fortress should be in sight. Once we get in we just have to make it to the top and take her out. The usual stuff. I don’t know what kind of traps she’ll have set up so be ready for anything.” With the Legend turned around and lead them on.

Surely enough very soon the fortress appeared in their vision, it appeared like a twisted imitation of Hyrule castle. Colored all dark great a shadow was cast over the land, as they continued on the draw bridge opened and Veran’s voice drifted out over the wind,

“Heroes of light, creatures of dark, and those in between. You seek to be free yet first you must pass through my fortress, trials of dark and trials of light await you. Only if you embrace both will you succeed.” 

As Veran’s voice faded so did the light around them and the heroes slipped into unconsciousness. 

____________________________________________________________________________

When Sky awoke again it was like his head was full of dense clouds that made his thoughts fuzzy and slow. Looking around he saw only Legend, Four, Wild, and Twilight. The others were gone. A quick survey showed they were in a small room with a corridor leading outward. 

“She split us up.” Legend observed looking at his friends before registering, “Wait where’s Ravio?”

“He’s probably with the others.” Twi comforted as Sky moved to sitting still trying to clear his head, all their words felt muffled and distant. 

“That means he’s alone with Eternal, and Conqueror, and Callous.” Legend’s breath speed up slightly, looking on the edge of panic. “We need to find them.”

Four grabbed Legend’s hand and signed something Sky couldn’t see. As Twilight continued, “No, that means he’s there with Time, and Warriors and Hyrule. They wouldn’t let the darks hurt him.”

Legend mumbled something Sky couldn’t hear, his ears finally beginning to clear he heard Wild speak up. “We need to get moving, I’m sure we’ll meet up with others if we just go through. 

The others nodded and gathered their things. Sky stood noticing his second sword had slipped out of its scabbard, the sword he loathed to use but found himself carrying most often. Fi still wouldn't respond, not so much as a word or even a feeling in months, it was almost easier to use the demon sword rather than have to deal with that silence.

Sighing lightly he put his swords back in their scabbard as the ghostly image of his old enemy appeared by him, not that the others could see.

"Finally we made it to the stupid palace, I can't wait to be free of this stupid light." Griahim complained as he often did. 

Sky just ignored the sword spirit as he started to follow the others. Ghirahim continued to complain as they went, complaining that he hadn't taken care of the blade or complaining about the temple and it's garish design.

As they ended the hall it opened into a wide room with black and white tiles if the floor, as Wild who was in the lead stepped in the first tile it made a sound like a note played on the piano. 

“What the…?” Wild started.

Veran’s melodious voice floated over them once again “Each of you must play along to the song of the tiles, for if you dont death will befall on these trials.”

The five looked at each other, before Sky spoke up. “I think we need to play music, as we walk across.”

From his bag Sky drew his Zelda’s harp, the small golden harp reminded him of her. A heavy weight settled in his heart as somewhere in the pits of their soul he felt Stygain’s repulse for her. Sky still loved her, more than he had ever loved anyone before, but using her harp felt wrong in his hands.

Trying to push that feeling of disgust away he strummed the harp lightly its golden tones still melodious as they always had been. Four and Legend turned to their bags and dug through them, Four producing a simple ocarina and Legend producing a harp, quite different from Zelda’s. Legend’s harp was pink and blue in a circle, with golden features. As he strummed it the others could feel the power that came from it, this was not just an instrument.

Wild and Twilight just kind of stood there awkwardly and Four turned to them signing “You music play?”

“Well um I do have one thing I could try, I’m not very good with it.” With a few taps of the Sheikah slate wild pulled out an accordion. He squeezed the instrument a few times tapping the keys on the side in a familiar melody though Sky couldn’t recall its name. Legend nodded and they turned back to Twilight who shifted nervously.

“Do you not play any instrument?” Legend questioned. “I've got a spare few in my bag….”

“I um, I usually howl.” Twilight muttered. The others attention snapped back to him. 

“You what?” Legend laughed.

“I howl, I can whistle too but not without a piece of grass.” Twi said his face becoming more assured. 

“It’ll be fine Twilight.” Wild said looking at the others, he shifted his accordion and turned back around to face the room.

Sky watched as Twilight shifted into his wolf form and let out a howl, deep and full. The others played their instruments along with it, the sounds of their odd five piece band mingling together.

Sky strummed the harp as they made their way through the room, each new tile would make a note and they would respond by playing the same or accompanying ones, as they hurried over the floor it grew into a song of sorts each note helping to create the symphony. As Sky played the feeling of the harp in his hands made him warm, glad that he had this piece of her with him.

As they reached the final tile of them room it sounded with a deep tone like that of a church bell striking, though they tried to recreate it only Twilight’s howls came anywhere close to it. Though he should have felt panicked Sky didn’t, he felt calm, calmer than he had in awhile but Zelda’s harp always had that effect on him. Instead Sky just briskly walked forward off the tile into the safety of the hallway as the tile began to crack and shake. The others quickly followed running and in some cases jumping off to make it into the hallway. 

After putting away their instruments the other turned to Sky.

“How did you know that would work?” Twilight questioned. “There could have been some other trap or trick.” 

Sky simply shrugged, “It was the last tile, it was the simplest path.”

After a few more odd glances the others continued on ward as they started through the maze of Veran’s castle, they honestly did more getting lost than they did solving puzzles or setting off traps.

But as they continued Sky kept thinking about that puzzle, about the song they played, once he put it together it seemed familiar, like something Zelda would have played for him when they were younger. An image of her playing the harp, her hands moving lightly over is strings, golden hair gleaming in the sun appeared in his mind conjuring up a small smile on his face.

Could have this witch designed the puzzle, for him? To remind him of his Zelda? Sky’s thoughts wondered at the possibility, but why would she have done that? As he followed that line of reasoning Sky thoughts turned, she was using Zelda’s song to mock him. To use something he loved against him.

The dark part of his mind, the voice and emotions he’d come to associate with Stygian spoke.  _ “You let your pathetic obsession with her make you a fool, even before this witch stepped in.” _

“Its not an obsession, I love her.” He defended yet the voice rose again.

“And that makes you all the weaker, thinking yourself worthy of a goddess.” 

Sky’s heart fell as he considered the words, was he really worthy of her and her affection? He spent his entire life learning how to fight to protect her, to be a knight for their home. But for what? For a woman that would never be able to be with him even though they had been reincarnated so many times together. 

The harp now hidden in his pack seemed to grow heavy at his thoughts and he felt a growing repulsion to the instrument. All of that, just to solve a stupid puzzle?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Hyrule awoke to see Time’s armored back facing him the other laying on the ground unconscious. As he shook off the feeling of sluggishness, magical not medicinal, something he sadly knew the difference between he got his bearings. It seemed only Time, Warriors, Wind and Ravio were with him.

When Hyrule awoke to see Time’s armored back facing him the other laying on the ground unconscious. As he shook off the feeling of sluggishness, magical not medicinal, something he sadly knew the difference between he got his bearings. It seemed only Time, Warriors, Wind and Ravio were with him. 

_ “That witch, of course she’d pull something like this. When we see her, she’s going to pay for inconveniencing me so much.” _ Callous said his voice venomous.  _ “Get moving.”  _

“I’m not going until the others are awake.” Hyrule insisted. He’d spent most of his adventure alone and he was not going to do that again in a place like this, especially not with Callous like this. 

_ “That sounds like a refusal,”  _ Callous began before a soft noise caught his attention causing Hyrule to whip his head around. 

Ravio sat up abruptly on the other side of the room and looked around his bunny hood raised slightly revealing his mouth and some dark hair beneath it, the man quickly pulled his hood back on and looked at Hyrule. “Where’s Legend, where are the others?”

“It seems we’ve been split up. Once the others come to we’ll go find them, dont worry about it.” Hyrule reassured hoping he sounded confident, it’s likely they’d find the others at the top of the fortress with Veran if past experience is to be believed.

Ravio nodded and scooted slightly away from the others and waited. After everyone woke up with varying levels of confusion they regrouped and headed down the only hallway they could see. Callous quieted down as they took off though Hyrule could feel his 

Time himself took the lead, carrying a torch. Hyrule walked almost side by side with Time, his movements jittery as he checked the area again, and again. His ears twitched as he tried to focus in on his hearing as much as possible, this was the ideal spot of a trap. 

The castle seemed devoid of monsters or their friends as they traversed, the entire place was dimly lit and it was hard to see the path ahead, several times they had to retrace their steps because they had taken a wrong turn or gone down the wrong tunnel. Once Hyrule had even saved Time from falling off a ledge none of the others had seen.

The constant wandering was beginning to annoy Warriors as the man ground his teeth as they continued, he was used to fighting in big open spaces, not traversing small inclosed tunnels for hours. By the time they came to the end of yet another dark stone hallway and stepped into a wide open space with immediately lit up with torches placed in on the wall they all jumped at the sudden light their eyes taking a second to adjust to the light. 

The walls of the room were the same smooth stone as the rest of the fortress but in the middle of the room was a pedestal with a bright crystal switch on top of it. A large clock on the forward wall displayed numbers from one to nine, as they entered the door behind them shut. 

Wind helpfully ran up from behind them and said “Only one thing to do,” before slashing at the switch with his sword causing it to turn red. The clocks hand began to move slowly off the nine as a loud crashing noise sounded in the room. Hyrule turned quickly look for a source but found none. 

As the hand passed the eight and continued to go the crash sounded again, it came from any and everywhere. Hyrule grabbed onto his ears hoping to quiet the noise a little bit but it was just too damn loud.

As the seven crawled by the lights in the room went out and began to flash, the fires randomly flaring and dying. As Hyrule attempted to look around the room as the periods of light and darkness grew to shorter and shorter flashes he founds the others in a similar situation. Wind’s ears where clamped over his ears and his eyes were shut, Warriors seemed the least affected though his eyes were squinched. Time was faring better than Wind, his hands on his ears. Though Hyrule couldn’t see Ravio in between the flashes.

As the clock hit four the founds got louder and were accompanied by the sound of pouring water, like the room was going to be filled up, in addition the room grew colder.

Hyrule tried and searched the walls when he could manage to get his eyes open, there had to be something, anything, to turn this off.

_ “Turn off those damn noises! _ ” Callous yelled inside his head, outside of his control Hyrule felt his sword get drawn and slash at the switch. That did nothing as the clock continued to count down. The force of the swing knocked Hyrule to his feet as the sounds got louder, the lights got brighter, brighter, brighter, brighter.

In and out he tried to breath, tried to turn himself inward curling into a ball, Callous’s voice became inaudible as the sounds grew to a crescendo then finally a bell tolled, the bell tolled nine times each strike causing Hyrule to shake his nails digging into his hairline as he tried in vain to block the noises again. 

Tolling, tolling, tolling, the chimes got quieter but kept going. That was all he could hear, all he could see was disorienting shapes that meant nothing. If Hyrule’s mind had been functioning he might have noticed that the noises in the room had actually stopped. But he just kept breathing erratically trying to get that sound that noise out of his mind. 

“Hyrule, Hyrule.” His name was spoken from somewhere behind him, it sounded like Warriors. Hyrule tried, tried to pull his hands from his head but they were completely locked. He had no control, this wasn’t like when Callous was in control, his body just wouldn’t respond. 

After a couple minutes the sound began to die, the rings becoming more infrequent until they were practically gone, his eyes had opened but the room was dark. Eventually Hyrule unfolded himself and looked around. The lights in the room had been dimmed except for a single torch which was alight in the back wall, casting a faint flickering light. A door was now open across from the pedestal.

“How?” Hyrule cracked out.

“How what?” Warriors replied to voice sounding closeby.

As Hyrule unfolded completely he saw Warriors sitting cross legged on the floor near him. Time and Wind sat a little farther off that younger was hugged to Time’s side his eyes shut. Ravio sat a few feet away from them his bunny hood a cushion as he rested against the wall.

“How did you get it to stop?”

“Oh that.” Warriors commented shifting. “It just stopped on its own when the door opened, we didn’t do anything. Do you wanna talk about what just happened?”

Hyrule took in a deep breath. “Not really I just…”

_ “Get moving.”  _ Callous’s voice suddenly returned with a fury.

“I don't handle things like this well. I’m fine. We need to go.” Hyrule said trying to stand reassuring himself. He could handle this, this is what he had done when he was alone, you just keep going, keep going until the end, after that was the time for rest.

“Oh no you don't.” Warriors said grabbing his hand without standing. “You just had a full on panic attack, you need to rest. I won’t question you but you don't need to try to keep going right now.”

The shaking in his legs and arms drove the point home so Hyrule sat back down. 

“Fine, only for a little while.” Hyrule compromised.

_ “We don’t have time for this Link.”  _ Callous spat.  _ “Get moving or I do it for you.” _

“No, I can’t even stand right now. I doubt you’d be able to either. I’m staying.” 

Callous seized control and tried to stand only to fall back down again before he even made it up to full height.

Warriors caught him and forced him to sit back down. “Well know that Callous has taken his turn trying to get you up I recommend you go to sleep. You need it.”

Hyrule nodded thankfully, at least kept Callous from forcing him forward. Hyrule laid down with one arm under his head and feel asleep quickly, the exhaustion of weeks gone by pouring down. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided in this chapter and forward to change the way I write Four, in the past I've always done it like Green is in control and the others are all voices in his head. But they're all Four you know. So I'm changing how I write him, when together you can think of Four like a SU fusion with one mind still made up of others, while separated that's when the personalities come out. 
> 
> Thank you in advance for bearing through this change with me. I may in future go back and retroactively change the previous chapters on Four to fit this dynamic. With all that said please enjoy merged.

After they had left the musical puzzle everyone was on edge but overall the mood had lightened. Sky was still downcast, Four had seen the way he looked at the harp in disgust, as though it was the worst thing ever made. It had to be Stygian but soon they would reach the top of the fortress and would be able to be separated from the darks. 

He’d be able to see Shadow again! Not to say having Shadow in his head wasn’t nice but soon Shadow would be his own person again. That thought fueled him as Four and the others traversed the fortress. 

The hallways they traveled were well lit and spacious, they just seemed to go on forever. The group would activate the occasional switch to reveal a new passage or fight off weak enemies to open a door but nothing complicated like the musical puzzle. 

After what they presumed to be a couple hours the group stopped to rest, without windows and with the constant light it was hard to tell whether it was day or night.

“While we’re stopped we should get some rest. Only an hour or two, we’ll need to be at our best when we get to Veran.” Legend said. 

Four nodded. They all knew to take Legend at face value, anyone who was powerful enough to do this to them had to have some tricks up their sleeve.

“What powers does she have?” Four signed.

“Mainly she shoots fireballs, but her most annoying ability is being able to possess people. The only way to get her out of a host last time was to use magic seeds but I don't have any left. So we’ll have to keep her from possessing anyone.” Legend finished his face grim.

“Any other surprises we should be expecting?” Wild asked. Legend just shook his head.

“That's all I can remember, if she manages to possess someone their skin will go completely blue. That's all I can think of.” 

“Good to know. You all get some sleep, I’ll wake you in an hour.” Twilight ordered and the others easily obliged, even Wild who normally would have insisted to help watch. 

Four feel asleep quickly his hood acting as a pillow.

____________________________________________________________________________

A little while later Twilight was calling for them all to wake up and as Four awoke he stretched and yawned. Turning to Legend Four tried to tell his friend something only to have his voice grate against his messed up vocal chords, the pain of it catching in his throat.

The others looked at him in worry as Four gripped his throat and coughed, a small amount of blood came out into his hand. Still after all this time it hadn’t even healed enough to allow him to speak a little bit. Sign was a fine substitute for most things but still, he missed laughing and singing. 

“Four?” Legend asked looking at him in worry.

“Fine.” He signed back before taking on a “I promise.”

With more reassurances the others left him alone and kept going, they tracked along spacious hallways adorned with light colored bricks and red carpet under their feet, something more fitting of Hyrule Castle. Not that any of them would have complained, better than the dark and dank tunnels of the temples, palaces, and dungeons they’d traversed before. 

As they rounded another corner the roof of the hallway began to slope down towards the end, curious they continued on and the hallway continued to narrow and grow shorter. Four watched the walls noting how the gentle change turned to a rapid one, before long Sky and Twilight were slouching a lot, soon Wild and Legend were too.

When the tunnel got to crawling height they began to worry. 

“Should we go back?” Wild asked the others sitting down his head nearly scraping the ceiling. 

“No, there weren’t any other paths back there. This has to be another puzzle somehow.” Legend observed.

Four had a sinking feeling this particular puzzle was somehow oriented around him. 

Four shook his head and caught the others attention, he signed “I'll go, make sure we can get through.”

After a curt nod from Twilight Four turned and started down the hallway, if need be he could shrink down to minish size, or even if he just split any one of them was smaller than their combined form. 

So he continued on down the mind bendingly long tunnel, feeling as it got tighter and tighter, a feeling he wasn’t quite accustomed to being as small as he is. Eventually he got the point where he was crawling along on his belly and his head kept hitting the ceiling. He has long ago stopped being able to see his friends, and he had no way to communicate at this distance either since he couldn’t shout. 

Finally he got frustrated and grabbed onto the feather that served as an earring on his left ear and spoke a quick spell, the familiar buzz of magic took over and within moments he had shrunk down to his minsh form, this form being barely four inches tall the space that had felt cramped now was open and wide. Four scurried forward to get through the tunnel as quickly as possible. 

Scurrying along the hall he soon came to a small door, Four opened the door noticing how only in minish size would anyone fit through. Whatever this was it had clearly been designed for him.

As he went through the door he found himself in a room bearing four doors each with weighted switches in front of them. Though the room was still minish sized. Walking over to one switch he stepped onto it causing the door in front of him to open, testing a theory he momentarily stepped off causing the door to go shut again.

Sighing Four grabbed his sword which had shrunk down with him and called upon its latent power, the feeling of his mind being pulled apart took over and soon Four minish heroes stood staring at each other. 

“We’re on a time limit.” Green signed. “Never been split while small before.”

The others nodded while Green continued, “Where’s Shadow?”

Blue raised his hand, the usually hot tempered hero signed deftly unused to having to think about that, since Green usually handled it. 

“Take one door each.” Vio signed to his brothers and they nodded taking up spots in front of each door. Once they did the doors opened as Green counted down, 3, 2, 1, go. Quickly all four took off down their hallways.

____________________________________________________________________________

As they scurried down the hallways each copy encountered twists and turns. It was like being a mouse in a maze, and their frustration only grew higher.

“I can't do this anymore!” Blue said to Shadow flopping down on the tunnel floor. “We’re never getting out, I’m just going to wait here for the others to find me.”

_ “They won’t be able to find you here, and you know what happens when you stay apart for too long.”  _ Shadow warned, normally he wouldn’t have been very talkative but Blue needed the encouragement, otherwise the dark knew he would just sit here and fume until exhaustion overtook them from being apart for so long.  _ “We really will be stuck here forever if you don’t get moving.” _

“You’re just as bad as Green.” Blue’s voice mumbled inside their head as he stood up and kept going.

Soon they ran into a new room, this one big like the four hallways, but had only two doors. 

Above them was an inscription “Two doors, one will lead to your reward, the other will lead to your death, choose the right door or perish.”

By this point Blue was exhausted mentally and physically, he was annoyed and he was tired. The few hours of sleep they had gotten only served to make his irritability worse. Noticing the three other tunnels on the wall behind him Blue and Shadow decided the others would likely be there soon.

In line with that prediction the others slowly arrived, first Vio, then Green and finally Red. 

“So, which door do we choose?” Vio signed after Red finished hugging them all. It wasn’t often they were separated anymore so Red had to get his hugs when he could. 

“Why don't we open them both and see?” Blue offered passing on the suggestion from Shadow.

“We might not be able to go back once its open.” Green signed looking at the doors and the surrounding area. 

“It says to choose the ‘right’ door so we should take the left.” Vio signed.

“Why?”

“It's a reverse idea, putting what seems like the right answer but is actually wrong.” Vio explain giving a calculating look over the door.

“Legend did say Veran was cunning. Let's do it.” Green affirmed nodding his head. The four of them headed to the door almost knocking into each other. 

“Oh right.”

____________________________________________________________________________

The once again merged Four opened the left door and carefully walked down the hallways it bended and twisted but never turned, after a time he noticed it began to get bigger again, and bigger, until he could have fit in it a full size. Speaking the reverse incantation Four grew back to full size as his animal like minish features reverted to normal Hylian.

Once he was full size again he heard voices not far away. So he continued forward quickly and soon found himself back in the original hallway, with the other four heroes he had awoken with.

When they noticed him emerging Wild and Twilight ran to him.

“What happened?”

“Did you find the way?”

“It's been hours.”

He signed as quickly as he could without losing meaning, telling them about the tunnels and the maze, and then finally the doors. As he reached that point in his story a voice drifted out.

“So the rat has made it through my maze, and in only a few short hours. Pity, I had hoped it would take days. You may proceed.” As Veran’s voice drained away the hallways warped and turned from the cramped space into a wide hallway once again with a staircase rising in front of them.

“I did it.” Four signed looking up at his friends. His stomach grumbled loudly and his last thought before passing out was “I forgot how much energy that was going to take.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ravio to be honest was terrified. He had figured at least he'd be with Legend for the rest of the adventure but of course the first thing to happen was then getting split up, just his usual luck.

Ravio to be honest was terrified. He had figured at least he'd be with Legend for the rest of the adventure but of course the first thing to happen was then getting split up, just his usual luck. 

The room with the flashing lights, and the sounds have scared him more than he wanted to admit, he had even accidentally drawn on Curses power and pulled them into the shadows, deafening noises and dampening the light. Luckily he returned before any of the heroes realized it. 

He had watched as Hyrule had his panic attack, glad once again that his hood hide his face and hide his own fear and rapid breathing. Ravio had even fallen asleep at some point while they were waiting and was awoken with a light shake from Time, Eternal’s light if he remembered correctly. 

“We need to get moving, the others have probably encountered problems of their own, the sooner we get to the top, the sooner we can get out of here.” Time said as they passed through the doorway, as with before he and Hyrule were leading. Though the path ahead was still dark and dismal as the rest.

Time and the one with the scarves, Warriors, carried torches as they walked on. 

_ “Calm down bunny. After the last room we can handle whatever Veran throws at us.”  _ Curse spoke inside his mind. 

“Of course, that's not what I’m worried about. We both know we can’t take them if a fight comes. Especially not if its four on one.” Ravio replied studying his companions. None of them had made any threatening actions but he was still on guard.

They didn't talk much as the group stalked down the dark hallways, up stairs, around precipes as they continued onward, eventually the floor gained a slant as they started going up. After a little while the dark hallway opened into another cavernous room.

The room had several beams of light shining from above onto five pillars interspaced across the room, each pillar didn’t look much larger than a shield, just enough space for a single person to stand. 

“Let's check for a way down or across, there may be hidden path.” Time offered. The other nodded and started doing everything they could think of. They fired arrows at the pillars, set fires, Time used a sort of odd looking glass in the shape of any eye. Ravio meanwhile searched the edge of the platform they were on for any staircases or ladders to find it lacking both. 

Carefully Ravio pulled a stone from his robe and dropped it off the side of the platform and waited for it to hit the bottom, when he still hadn’t heard anything after ten second he gave up.

“Wherever we are there's no way across except those pillars.” Ravio told the others who were trying to come up with ways to reveal a path. 

“How are we supposed to get across them though?” Wind asked. “I don't see anything to grapple onto.”

“Yeah, hookshot is out too, it won't cling to stone. Any my hover boots won't make that distance.” Time considered rubbing his face with one hand.

“What if they had a boost?” Wind asked his face lighting up. He pulled out what looked like a small baton. “I can use this to push your forward, if you can hover for long enough it should help you make it all the way.” 

“It's worth a try.” Warriors shrugged.

“What if you can't make it?” Ravio asked. “You’ll fall to your death.”

“We don't have an alternative. Once I make it across I might be able to find a way to send the rest of you.” Time said pulling out his bag and removing a pair of winged boots. He sat down to put them on while continuing. “If this doesn’t work do not jump down after me, we don’t need anyone else getting hurt.”

“What do we do if he can't make it?” Ravio asked Curse. “If all else falls we could always shadow travel and catch him before he goes down. However that would reveal us immediately.”

_ “That's our last resort, lets see how this plays out for now.”  _ Curse agreed as they watched the insanity unfold. 

Time stood near the edge of the platform and Wind stood behind me holding up his baton. Slowly Wind began to conduct humming a melody to himself, around them wind began to swirl. 

“Go now.” Wind shouted still conducting and Time took off in a running start, with the currents of wind pushing him forward and the golden circles under his feet Time reached the first platform quickly and stopped.

“Go again!” Time shouted over the distance, so they repeated the process, and again, and again. Each time Time made it to the pillar just as he started to drop, sometimes having to grab onto the ledge and hoist himself up.

Finally when Time was one pillar away from the end he shouted back for Wind to go again where they could just barely here, but as Time stepped off the platform he took about five steps before he realized the wind hadn’t yet reached him, and began to fall. 

“No!” Wind screamed rushing to the edge of the platform as Warriors grabbed him back. 

Ravio looked around, does he risk them finding out, should he throw everything away to save this hero? Legend would be devastated if one of his friends died. As Ravio stood his mind racked with indecision Time disappeared and reappeared on the platform across the room.

“I knew Eternal wouldn’t let me fall to my death.” Time called out. 

“That doesn’t help us get across.” Ravio whispered, frustrated but glad he hadn’t needed to reveal himself. 

“I think I might be able to shadow travel across.” Wind spoke up, “Tempest is willing to try it. But I don't know if I can carry another person.”

“I can do it.” Hyrule said. Ravio and Warriors whipped around to look at him. The young hero still looked shaken from earlier but his face was set. Of all the darks they’d thought would be cooperative they’d never have expecting Callous. 

“Are you sure Hyrule? What if you lose control to Callous?” Warriors questioned. “We can try to find another way.”

Hyrule just shook his head. “Don’t need to worry about that. I can do it. I’ll take one of you then the other.” 

By that point Wind was already standing by Time’s side on the other side. Ravio took a deep breath. “Ok I’ll go first then.”

_ “Hmm I don't like this, Callous wouldn’t normally be this cooperative, unless he’s getting something out of it.”  _ Curse commented as Ravio walked to stand next to Hyrule.

“He probably wants to get to Veran as much as we do.” Ravio postulated in response. “We’ll have to trust him for now.”

As Ravio finished his mental conversation Hyrule grabbed his hand and they vanished into the shadows before reappearing on one pillar, then the next, and the next, and the next. Soon they were on the opposite platform. As Hyrule let go of Ravio the later fell down his head spinning. Sure he’d shadow traveled plenty of times but before he had done it himself or with Curse and the feeling was not the same as being dragged along with Hyrule.

Hyrule wasted no time dropping him and going back for Warriors. When Warriors and Hyrule reappeared together on the other side Ravio quickly stood.

“Well that was unexpectedly cooperative.” Warriors said fixing his scarves. “Let's get going before any side effects of having to rely on the darks happen.” Warriors lead the way as they climbed a staircase past the doorway and started upward. 

They climbed upward for nearly an hour on the same steep staircase until finally they crested the stairs and saw at the top a set of heavy oak doors bearing a symbol Ravio could only assume was Verans. 

“Is it really that easy?” Wind asked, looking at the door. “Only two puzzles? And that's it?”

“No doubt Veran has some trick or trap waiting for us beyond the door. But we should wait here for the others.” Time said as he noted the staircase in the opposite direction.

Ravio sat down on the wall across from the door tired from the long climb as they waited. He had done research on this Veran and only hoped they’d be able to take her down. Supposedly she only had weakness, a seed of some sort. Curse had been able to get his hands on some, at a hefty cost they hadn’t liked, but it was necessary. Naturally they had no idea how to use these seeds but perhaps Legend would. 

The sounds of talking arose from the other staircase and Ravio quickly came to his feet. Soon five other heroes appeared lead by Legend. They’d all made it through, now they just had to face this final task. 


End file.
